Every year, cancer claims the lives of more than half a million Americans. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, exceeded only by heart disease. One of every four deaths in the United States is cancer-related.
Cancers arise from cells that have undergone genetic alterations, leading to abnormal proliferation on a clonal basis. These genetic alterations can include activation of oncogenes or inactivation of tumor suppressors. Different types of cancers have been found to have a wide range of underlying genetic alterations and vary in their pathological progression to the cancerous state, including in their ability to invade surrounding normal tissues and metastasize.
Conventional approaches to cancer treatment include surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, or a combination thereof. However, for more aggressive and invasive cancers, these treatments have less of an effect than cancers caught at earlier stages of progression. Firstly, invasive cancers appear to be inherently more resistant to a wider variety of chemotherapeutic agents. Secondly, the invasive progression of and metastatic potential of cancer is complex and still poorly understood.
Likewise, neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, or other neurodegenerative disorders that generally start late in life affect nearly one in three seniors. Currently, there are no cures for these types of disorders, and researchers are looking for new treatments to alter the course of the disease and improve the quality of life for those with dementia-like disorders.
Fibrotic diseases, which include pulmonary fibrosis, systemic sclerosis, liver cirrhosis and cardiovascular disease, account for over 45% of deaths in the developed world. In the United States, for example, while some prescribed medications may stabilize subjects who have pulmonary fibrosis, there are currently no FDA-approved therapies, and lung transplantation remains the most viable course of treatment to extend the lives of those with pulmonary fibrosis.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need to identify new treatments to target these devastating disorders.